Use voluntary agreements with local people to reduce disturbance

Overall effectiveness category Likely to be beneficial
Number of studies: 1
Share Tweet Email

View assessment score

How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

50%
Certainty

40%
Harms

0%

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Many people will be willing to avoid certain areas or activities to help local bird populations if they are consulted and kept informed about conservation issues. Under these circumstances, voluntary agreements to avoid birds may be at least as effective in reducing disturbance as restricting access.

Study locations

Key messages

A before-and-after trial in the USA found significantly lower disturbance rates following the establishment of a voluntary waterfowl avoidance area (VWAA), despite an overall increase in boat traffic.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Supporting evidence from individual studies

A before-and-after study 1986 in Lake Onalaska, Wisconsin and Minnesota, USA (Kenow et al. 2003), found that disturbances to waterfowl within a voluntary waterfowl avoidance area (VWAA) established in 1986 decreased significantly over time. Despite an increase in boating traffic (1.82 boating events/hour in 1986-8 vs. 2.58 in 1997), the 1997 disturbance rate were comparable to that in 1981. Rate of intrusion into the VWAA was lower in 1997 (0.11 intrusions/boating event) than in either 1986-8 (0.18) or 1993 (0.21). Boating disturbances to waterfowl within the VWAA occurred at about half the rate (0.24-0.28 disturbances/hour) observed prior to establishment of the program (0.48 disturbances/hour). The total number of waterfowl displacements observed as a result of boating events was 435,770 in 1993 and 71,155 in 1997. More than 90% of all waterfowl were observed within the VWAA.
Study and other actions tested
Referenced paper
Kenow K.P., Korschgen C.E., Nissen J.M., Elfessi A. & Steinbach R. (2003) A voluntary program to curtail boat disturbance to waterfowl during migration. Waterbirds (formerly Colonial Waterbirds), 1, 77-87.

Please cite as:

Williams, D.R., Child, M.F., Dicks, L.V., Ockendon, N., Pople, R.G., Showler, D.A., Walsh, J.C., zu Ermgassen, E.K.H.J. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Bird Conservation. Pages 137-281 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Bird Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Use nest covers to reduce the impact of research on predation of ground-nesting seabirds Action Link	Unknown effectiveness (limited evidence)	1	Synopsis Link
Use voluntary agreements with local people to reduce disturbance Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	1	Synopsis Link
Set minimum distances for approaching birds (buffer zones) Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link